Let’s begin by saying what gardening is not. Generally speaking, it is not a rainy day activity. Sure you can have a home or office full of indoor plants, but you’d have to have a lot of them to get much exercise and activity. And very few of us are lucky enough to have a green house large enough to provide 30 minutes or more of strenuous exercise each day. It would take a green house of that magnitude to supply us with all the groceries we need, especially year around. So we can pretty much say that gardening is not going to make us independent of the grocery store unless you have a large garden and want to can things way your grandmother or great-grandmother once did.

That’s the down side. For ninety-nine percent of us, we won’t be able to garden every day, nor will we be able to provide all our own groceries. But we can, “make hay while the sun shines,” and, “enjoy the fruits of our labor,” as the old sayings go and help describe the benefits that gardening provids. I much prefer the Vitamin D my body makes from being outdoors on a sunny day and to me, nothing tastes better than the fruits and vegetables that are consumed just minutes after being harvested from my garden.

However you might ask, is gardening strenuous enough to be considered exercise, or is it more of a keep busy sort of activity – merely an outdoor exercise on the level of playing solitaire on the computer? In my opinion it certainly can be.

In fact, if you’re new to gardening, or haven’t done it in awhile, I should caution you to take the same precautions with gardening that you would before beginning any other strenuous exercise. Just about everyone with an ounce of brains knows you don’t go to the gym for the first time and begin with heavy weights. You start with the light ones and make it increasingly more difficult as the muscles rebuild stronger. That’s not always possible with gardening. Quite often you have to begin by digging out or moving heavy rocks or other obstacles; to say nothing of toting those big cumbersome bags of composted manure and other soil amendments.

Then too is the digging and turning of the dirt and all the other preparations that it takes to make a bed ready, and using containers won’t get you out of that entirely. Actually, I find turning a bed, even a large bed with a spading fork to be easier than filling and moving around a bunch of five gallon containers of moist potting soil. Even a completely dry container is too much for someone not used to manipulating something like that. In the gym you can get a knowledgeable trainer to show you the correct lifting techniques to prevent injury. Unfortunately there isn’t that kind of help available for the home gardener. As a result, each year there are thousands that require medical attention due to doing the right thing the wrong way while working in their garden. Think before you do! Lift with care, caution, and balance.

Now a word or two or three about the mental or emotional aspect of gardening – another of the benefits of gardening. Stress really is a killer. If you’ve been listening to the “Wellness Wednesday” series of the “Older & Active” show on Blog Talk Radio, you’ve enjoyed Dr. Pickering’s programs on “Attitude” and more recently on “Nutrition.” Coming up soon is the series on Stress and he’ll be telling us what causes it and how to avoid it. Physical activity is one of the best preventive measures that I know of, and I’ll also rank gardening right up there too. There is something incredibly peaceful about gardening that I can’t explain, I only accept and enjoy.

Finally, a few words about another significant perspective to work in the garden – good nutrition.

In this day and age of Monsanto’s GMO produce and pesticide polluted groceries, there are only two choices left to the wise consumer: buy produce that you know is grown organically, preferably at a local farmer’s market from a vendor that you’ve learned to trust, or grow your own. I do both because as I stated in the beginning, I’m not lucky enough to have a large garden and a big greenhouse. And what doesn’t grow locally I get from a grocery store that specializes in having organic produce. I wish I had the facilities to grow as much Kale, Spinach, and Swiss Chard as I consume year around, but I don’t and have to rely on others.

Now maybe it’s just my imagination, but I happen to think what I grow tastes much better. So give gardening a try – your body, as well as your mind, will be glad you did.

The annual balloon launch for Older Americans Month was held at the xxxxxx County Senior Center on Tuesday, May 1.

   Many extra activities will be going on at the Senior Center in celebration of Older Americans Month. xxxxx will host a free blood pressure check. There will be a punch and cookies social, as well as a Mother’s Day Program on the 10th, when all ladies will be presented with a live flower to take home and plant. There will be several drawings for door prizes. They will also host a cookie day, dessert day, and the line dancers will perform at the Senior Center on May 17. A trip is planned to eat out at xxxxxx in xxxxxx as well.

   A trip to the xxxxxx for the Annual xxxxxx Conference will be held on May 24 and will include lunch from xxxxxx. The event is held annually by the xxxxxx Cares Program, xxxxxx, the Elder Rights Project Director and member of xxxxxx Legal Services; and xxxxxx, Director of Area Agency on Aging. The purpose of the event is to educate all senior citizens on how to prevent fraud. All State Legislators are invited to attend.

   A party will also be held at the Center, with cookies, punch, and lots of games like Let’s Make a Deal, and fellowship with all. There will also be a birthday celebration featuring ice cream and cake, as well as bingo, exercise, and nutrition education

Well, what is your impression? Have the people that plan these events been skipping the educational classes? Or have the class instructors skipped over some significant issues because they’re not popular?

Whatever the case, I hope the senior center in your area, or any organization that’s passing out what’s supposed to be healthy nutritional information, is diseminating GOOD information and following it too.

With the Obama administration bringing us closer and closer each day to his Marxist ideals and starting smear campaigns against anyone that protests, I can’t help but wonder at times if our government hasn’t opened an office similar to the KGB’s, “Office of Disinformation.” We’re constantly being told things that anyone with common sense can tell can’t be right. Sure, it sounds good, and sure, we’d like to believe it’s true. But if your brain hasn’t been addled by government approved (and encouraged) poor nutrition, water fluoridation, and other chemical onslaughts, you know barn yard droppings when you see them.

But don’t you dare question or raise your voice in protest. They’ll have a label for you too.

In this morning’s email news, I read about the latest effort to discredit anyone that questions Big Brother’s words of wisdom regarding nutrition. Just like anyone that complains about our elected officials failing to uphold the Constitution (that they’ve sworn to uphold) is designated a ‘radical’ or worse; we now have an official term to describe those of us that wish to make intelligent decisions about the food we eat. We can now put on our resume that we suffer from, “Orthorexia Nervosa,” a new and growing psychological disorder.

That means that those of us that eat healthy, protest fluoridation, raise our voices about FDA standards, question the effectiveness of the EPA, or in some other way, possibly even something as horrific as buying organic foods at a farmers market instead of our government approved grocery store, will be labeled as suffering from ‘orthorexia nervosa’ and summarily ignored and dismissed.

Translated from Latin, what “Orthorexia nervosa” means is, “nervous about the food you eat.” I can’t help but wonder, if like me you habitually read the food labels, would that qualify us to be upgraded to “Orthorexia paranoia” status? What about the many medical professionals, like Drs. Allan Spreen, Joseph Mercola, and Andrew Weil, that have been urging us for years to stay away from unhealthy, processed foods? As ringleaders of a sort, shouldn’t they be institutionalized immediately? I can just picture all of us confined to a mental institution, picking at our food plates, trying to find some morsel of good nutrition.

According to, “The Guardian,” which bills itself as the leading voice of liberalism, “The obsession about which foods are “good” and which are “bad” means orthorexics can end up malnourished.” Does that mean they think those of us in good health because of exercise and good nutrition are malnurished and the growing ranks of people that are obese, have plague filled arteries, and a medicine cabinet full of pills are doing it right? But in one way, they’re right. There’s so little ‘good’ nurishment out there that if you don’t know where to find it or how to get it, you could wind up with very little to eat.

Here’s another quote: “Orthorexics commonly have rigid rules around eating. Refusing to touch sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, wheat, gluten, yeast, soya, corn and dairy foods is just the start of their diet restrictions.” 

You got that right baby! Most of those are off my list for sure. But the one I really love is this one: “Any foods that have come into contact with pesticides, herbicides or contain artificial additives are also out.”

Just like Al Gore, this columnist doesn’t know that herbicides ARE pesticides and the use of both is redundant. But that aside, why in the name of God’s Green Earth would anyone intentionally want to consume poison? By their kind of thinking, slow, intentional suicide (as long as it keeps the medical industry busy) is perfectly sane, but being selective about the food you eat is a mental disorder. I don’t guess I’ll ever understand liberal logic.

Personally, I think I’ll have a t-shirt made up that says, “I have Orthorexia Nervosa and You Should Too!”

Can you really eat your way to happiness? The mood food connection

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

(NaturalNews) Yes, you really can eat your way to happiness, but perhaps not in the way you might first imagine. By “happiness,” I mean lasting happiness, not the fleeting kind of sensory happiness that might be experienced from sucking the cream filling out of a twinkie. And that’s the distinction that really matters here: When I talk about happiness, I’m talking about sustainable happiness, not a brief moment of spurious excitement that soon reverses itself and leads to depression.

You see, a lot of people try to eat their way to happiness by eating the “instant joy” foods like ice cream, donuts, cookies and yes, even twinkies. Sugar can, indeed, make us momentarily uplifted because this refined molecule temporarily boosts blood sugar and actively alters brain chemistry. But like any drug, the depression after it wears off is far worse than the brief happiness it appeared to give us. And in the worst cases, we sometimes fall into a pattern of treating that mental rut with yet another hit of sugar to try to keep the happiness going.

This downward cycle of sugar dependence leads us to long-term obesity, diabetes and depression.

As author Timothy Brantley says in The Cure: Heal Your Body, Save Your Life:
“How did these foods affect their moods? Food Group A (Standard American Diet). The subjects all had radical energy fluctuations, staying in a cycle of having to manipulate to produce quick energy after a radical drop. The subjects all remarked that they never realized how addicted they were to sugar and other stimulants, like caffeine, simply to function. The roller-coaster effect on their energy swung them into high and low moods, and many of them got sick consistently.”
(http://www.naturalpedia.com/book_Th…)

The Standard American Diet is obviously not the solution we’re looking for. But what works better?

Foods for long-term happiness

Fortunately, there are a huge number of other foods that promote long-term happiness. That’s what this article is about: Sharing with you the good news on foods that can support healthy moods and promote a positive outlook on life for the rest of your life.

And I have to say that list starts with omega-3 oils. High-quality omega-3s provide one of the most powerful and sustainable boosts to healthy moods of any commonly-available food.

Read up on omega-3s at NaturalPedia: http://naturalpedia.com/omega-3s.html

You can get omega-3 oils from fish, quality marine oil supplements like Moxxor, chia seeds, flax seeds and other quality nutritional supplements.

Beware of grocery store foods that claim to be “made with omega-3s” because the actual quantity of omega-3 oils in those foods is usually so tiny that it hardly matters to your daily nutritional intake.

Enjoy healthy nuts

Pecans are extremely beneficial to supporting not just healthy moods but healthy brain function as well. It’s the oils in the nuts that do the trick. Read more at http://naturalpedia.com/pecans.html

Other nuts can also be strongly supportive of healthy moods in the long term: Almonds, pistachios, macadamia nuts and walnuts all have powerful health-supporting properties that affect brain function and therefore mood experiences, too. Eat more raw nuts and you’ll create better brain balance for the long term!

Adaptogens and green tea

Green tea seems to provide a subtle mood lift without all the problems of typical stimulants. Just make sure you’re getting decaffeinated green tea, and check your source to make sure it doesn’t suffer from fluoride contamination (some green tea products grown in certain countries have been known to carry a lot of fluoride).

Adaptogenic herbs are also very, very good at helping your neurology better handle stress. This can often translate into an easier day, reduced stress and improved moods. Adaptogens include ginseng, ashwagandha, rhodiola, cordyceps mushroom and many others.

Learn more about adaptogens at NaturalPedia: http://www.naturalpedia.com/adaptog…

Herbal tonics for mood support

While we’re in the realm of herbs, there are several herbal tonic products that are well known to help support healthy moods. St. John’s Wort has been clinically shown to work as well as antidepressant drugs to ease symptoms of depression. I usually take it with dandelion or yellow dock to provide additional liver support.

Learn more about St. John’s Wort at NaturaPedia: http://www.naturalpedia.com/St_John…

Several Traditional Chinese Medicine herbal formulas are also known to help support healthy moods. Chinese herbs are always used in combination, never in isolation, but one herb that’s found in many mood-supporting formulas is Bupleurum.

The history and use of this herb is quite fascinating. Check it out here: http://www.naturalpedia.com/Bupleur…

Eat lots of fresh fruits and veggies

In addition to the omega-3 oils, nuts and herbs mentioned here, focus on consuming large quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables. You simply cannot over-eat fresh fruits and vegetables, so eat all you want. They’re loaded with mood-lifting nutrients that can also help prevent cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

Be sure to buy organic produce wherever possible!

What to avoid

This section can be summed up in just two words: Sugar, Caffeine.

Seriously. If you want to maintain healthy moods, it’s crucial to avoid refined sugar and caffeine from all sources. That means no caffeinated coffee, no donuts, no cookies, no Pepsi, etc.

These two chemicals do more to destroy healthy moods in the long term than probably any other chemicals in the food supply. And yet, ironically, they are precisely the two chemicals that people reach for to try to get short-term mood lifts.

They do provide short-term boosts, much like a drug. Heroin might make you feel good in the short term, too, but it’s highly addictive and causes huge health problems over the long haul. Sugar and caffeine are similarly addictive and problematic; except they’re legal and you don’t inject them with a syringe. (Well, at least I hope not.)

If you suffer from mood swings or depression right now, the first and most important change you need to make in your diet is to eliminate refined sugars and caffeine. The second change to make is to start bringing in mood-enhancing health foods such as omega-3s, raw nuts and lots of fresh produce.

But the really important step is to find new ways to enjoy your feed by expanding your experience of all the amazing tastes to be found in the universe of foods provided by Mother Nature. If you’ve never tried raw food cuisine, definitely check it out at a local raw food restaurant (or find a raw food chef in your area). You’ll be amazed at the new spectrum of tastes and sensory experiences provided by raw foods — and you’ll experience huge long-term health benefits from the raw foods, too!

Stay happy with healthy foods

Yes, food can make you happy, but only if you focus on consuming health-enhancing foods that are natural, non-refined and packed with nutrients. Don’t compromise your mental experience of life by turning to sugar, caffeine and other short-term stimulants. Or if you’re on those right now, find ways to slowly transition off them while embracing some of the healthier choices I’ve covered here.

In the long term, you’ll discover that healthy foods = healthy moods.

But give it time: It may take 30 days of eating right before you really feel the full effects with improved mood. Foods are not isolated chemicals that kick in right away. Transitioning to a healthier body and brain with healthy food takes some time. But it’s time well spent. After all, you get to eat your way to a more positive outlook on life. And that sounds kinda fun anyway, doesn’t it?{SubscribeHealthRangerBlock}

Aging is a complex phenomenon and the mechanisms underlying aging are yet to be explained. What researchers do know is that there is a clear relationship between aging and calorie intake. For example, mice fed with half the calories they usually eat can live 40 percent longer. How does this work?

As part of the PLoS Genetics study, Université de Montréal Biochemistry Professor Luis Rokeach and his student Antoine Roux discovered to their surprise that if they removed the gene for a glucose sensor from yeast cells, they lived just as long as those living on a glucose-restricted diet. In short, the fate of these cells doesn’t depend on what they eat but what they think they’re eating.

There are two obvious aspects of calorie intake: tasting and digestion. By the time nutrients get to our cells there is an analogous process: sensors on the surface of the cell detect the presence of, for example, the sugar glucose and molecules inside the cell break down the glucose, converting it to energy. Of these processes, it is widely thought that the by-products of broken down sugars are the culprits in aging. The study by Rokeach and Roux suggests otherwise.

To understand aging, Rokeach and Roux in collaboration with Université de Montréal Biochemistry Professors Pascal Chartrand and Gerardo Ferbeyre used yeast as a model organism. At a basic level, yeast cells are surprisingly similar and age much like human cells, as well as being easy to study.

The research team found that the lifespan of yeast cells increased when glucose was decreased from their diet. They then asked whether the increase in lifespan was due to cells decreasing their ability to produce energy or to the decrease in signal to the cells by the glucose sensor.

The scientists found that cells unable to consume glucose as energy source are still sensitive to the pro-aging effects of glucose. Conversely, obliterating the sensor that measures the levels of glucose significantly increased lifespan.

“Thanks to this study, the link between the rise in age-related diseases and the over-consumption of sugar in today’s diet is clearer. Our research opens a door to new therapeutic strategies for fighting age-related diseases,” says Professor Rokeach.

Professor Rokeach’s research is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and by the National Science and Engineering Research Council. Professor Ferbeyre’s and Professor Chartrand’s research are funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Get The Facts On These Closely-Guarded Secrets of this Tele-Seminar Series That Are Finally Being Revealed In The next 12 month (one each month) That Shows You How to Get Well Then Stay Well for Life so you can get Older and Better and NOT Old and Bitter as you only do good when you feel good knowing that sickness doesn’t take a holiday! Remember, growing old doesn’t make us sick, it’s growing sick that makes us old! So never let age be your cage!

Paying Too Much for those Boosters to gain Energy & Tools to boost your VITALITY … Find Out How To finally take charge of your health and Harness the power of your Inner Magic to Stay Young (Almost) Forever… you will learn how to get fit, stay healthy and have great looks for life!

You’ll Discover the Greatest Gold-Mine of Proven Advice Ever Crammed Into One System and You Can Laugh at your Health Worries – If You Follow These Simple, Easy Tips that we cover in this 12 month Tele-Seminar Interview Series titled “How to Get Well Then Stay Well for Life”!

Now you can be Eating Smart, Being Fit, Staying Well and You WILL have Tons of Energy; LESS Body FAT while Staying Younger Longer as you reverse the hassles of aging all in 12 1-Hour Interviews G~U~A~R~A~N~T~E~E~D!

Healthy People have MANY goals,
Unhealthy people have only 1 goal….

In this series you will enjoy:

• Sleeping soundly and awaking more rested
• Coping with stress, fatigue and depression with ease and style
• Having TONS of Energy with Improved Sexual Vigor
• Greatly improved mental abilities
• Decreased wrinkles, sags and loose skin
• Improved Vision, Speeds injury recovery
• Heightened creativity and learning ability
• Feeling Good while Staying Younger Longer
• Being 100% totally free of all aches, pains, stress & disease

Our Special Guest is Dr. Wayne Pickering “THE AMBASSADOR for HEALTH” from Daytona Beach, Florida and this week his topic will be What Causes Disease and what Health Really is and What it is Not!

In this 1st of 12 series you’ll discover:

1. What Health is NOT
2. What Health truly IS!
3. What Doctor’s Aren’t Telling You
4. 20 Tips to help Prevent Medical Errors
5. 6 Things to Consider about your Health for the Long Haul
6. Health Care in the Work Place
7. The Best DEFINITION of Disease
8. The BENEFITS Of Disease
9. The REASONS for Disease
10. The CAUSES of Disease
11. The 2 TYPES of Disease
12. The 6 STAGES of Disease so you’ll know that Disease is to be Revered NOT to be Feared
13. Healing Disease verses Curing Disease
14. “The Germ Theory” Exposed
15. The Ongoing War on Cancer

Dr Wayne is an

Author of 10 Health Guides; several C/D ROM’s; 8 Books; 22 Audio Learning Programs; award winning Video Series titled “Is Your Diet A Riot”, 32 Special Reports, over 400 Articles on Fitness, Stress & Nutrition, a weekly e-zine that goes out to over 13,000 opted in subscribers as well as 18 Websites & 10 Health Systems all distributed in 37 countries!

Nutritional Performance Coach, Life Management Consultant & Disease Prevention Specialist.

International Professional Speaker (Past President of the National Speakers Association in Florida) who has spoken in five countries and has shown thousands how to enjoy life totally free of health problems caused by Stress and Poor Nutrition and lack of Fitness

His prognosis was death at age 30. Now, at 63 years young, Dr. Wayne is an award winning Triathlete and a double nominee for the Healthy American Fitness Leader Award.

As a licensed Florida Nutrition Counselor, he improves human performance by sharing several secrets on “How to Get Well then Stay Well for Life!”

His nutrition programs are approved for continuing education credits by the Florida and Alabama State Boards of Pharmacy and most recently by the Florida Board of Dentistry.

His purpose is teaching you how to be the Healthiest Person on the Planet and not the Wealthiest Person in the Grave with easy steps that focus on Nutrition and a basic philosophy, “If you want to be tough, you have to eat good stuff!”

He is the founder of the Daytona Beach based Center for Nutrition & Life Management, Inc. He’s an amazing man with an awesome story. Give him a minute and he’ll give you a lifetime!

Don’t Miss It!

From: Andy Soos, ENN
Published September 29, 2010 11:34 AM

High Blood Pressure and Dementia

Join us Saturday morning, Oct. 9th,  for the 2nd part of the 2nd of a series of 12 Interviews to answer ALL your questions about “How to Get Well then Stay Well for Life”

Get The Facts On These Closely-Guarded Secrets of this Tele-Seminar Series That Are Finally Being Revealed In The next 12 month (one each month) That Shows You How to Get Well Then Stay Well for Life so you can get Older and Better and NOT Old and Bitter as you only do good when you feel good knowing that sickness doesn’t take a holiday! Remember, growing old doesn’t make us sick, it’s growing sick that makes us old! So never let age be your cage!

Paying Too Much for those Boosters to gain Energy & Tools to boost your VITALITY … Find Out How To finally take charge of your health and Harness the power of your Inner Magic to Stay Young (Almost) Forever… you will learn how to get fit, stay healthy and have great looks for life!

You’ll Discover the Greatest Gold-Mine of Proven Advice Ever Crammed Into One System and You Can Laugh at your Health Worries – If You Follow These Simple, Easy Tips that we cover in this 12 month Tele-Seminar Interview Series titled “How to Get Well Then Stay Well for Life”!

Now you can be Eating Smart, Being Fit, Staying Well and You WILL have Tons of Energy; LESS Body FAT while Staying Younger Longer as you reverse the hassles of aging all in 12 1-Hour Interviews G~U~A~R~A~N~T~E~E~D!

 Healthy People have MANY goals,
Unhealthy people have only 1 goal….

In this series you will enjoy:

• Sleeping soundly and awaking more rested
• Coping with stress, fatigue and depression with ease and style
• Having TONS of Energy with Improved Sexual Vigor
• Greatly improved mental abilities
• Decreased wrinkles, sags and loose skin
• Improved Vision, Speeds injury recovery
• Heightened creativity and learning ability
• Feeling Good while Staying Younger Longer
• Being 100% totally free of all aches, pains, stress & disease

 Our Special Guest is Dr. Wayne Pickering “THE AMBASSADOR for HEALTH” from Daytona Beach, Florida and this week his topic will be “GETTING WELL”

In this 2nd of 12 series you’ll discover:

1. Alternative health treatments that work
2. The Power of your Inner Magic.
3. How to RID your Body of Disease once and for all
4. Guidelines on “Doing Nothing Intelligently”
5. Strategies to Improve your Sex Life at any Age.
6. How to Finally Eliminate the Expensive Pills, Potions and Lotions
7. Tips to Boost your Immunity
8. Ways to Feel Tremendous once again

Don’t Miss It!

Dr Wayne is an

Author of 10 Health Guides; several C/D ROM’s; 8 Books; 22 Audio Learning Programs; award winning Video Series titled “Is Your Diet A Riot”, 32 Special Reports, over 400 Articles on Fitness, Stress & Nutrition, a weekly e-zine that goes out to over 13,000 opted in subscribers as well as 18 Websites & 10 Health Systems all distributed in 37 countries!

Nutritional Performance Coach, Life Management Consultant & Disease Prevention Specialist.

International Professional Speaker (Past President of the National Speakers Association in Florida) who has spoken in five countries and has shown thousands how to enjoy life totally free of health problems caused by Stress and Poor Nutrition and lack of Fitness

His prognosis was death at age 30. Now, at 63 years young, Dr. Wayne is an award winning Triathlete and a double nominee for the Healthy American Fitness Leader Award.

As a licensed Florida Nutrition Counselor, he improves human performance by sharing several secrets on “How to Get Well then Stay Well for Life!”

His nutrition programs are approved for continuing education credits by the Florida and Alabama State Boards of Pharmacy and most recently by the Florida Board of Dentistry.

His purpose is teaching you how to be the Healthiest Person on the Planet and not the Wealthiest Person in the Grave with easy steps that focus on Nutrition and a basic philosophy, “If you want to be tough, you have to eat good stuff!”

He is the founder of the Daytona Beach based Center for Nutrition & Life Management, Inc. He’s an amazing man with an awesome story. Give him a minute and he’ll give you a lifetime!

Don’t Miss It!

Nor are produce labeled “Organic” necessarily as organic as you might think. I’ve seen more than one grocery store with an “Organic” produce area and workers that couldn’t tell you the meaning of the word, much less the qualification for inclusion in that area.

The best source of good nutrition that I’ve found is the local farmer’s markets. I’m fortunate, living in San Antonio, to have several good farmers markets to choose from. But a farmer’s market is no guarantee that you’re getting anything that’s better, cleaner, or more nutritious - if you don’t ask questions. In my opinion, it’s the ability to ask questions that makes the farmer’s markets shine.

You will never run into the guy that grew the produce at a grocery store. However vendors at a farmer’s market are almost always family. The person doing the selling is either the grower or his wife or some other family member and usually even the youngest of the family members can answer questions intelligently. I’ve met several such vendors that have moved to a more rural location to raise organic produce and home school their children. Those kids are away from the influence of public schooling classmates and at the same time, getting a hands on education in agriculture and entreprenuership. There’s no doubt in my mind that if I were at that stage of my life myself, I’d do the same thing, and that’s probably why I have such great admiration for those that do.

Another thing I like about farmer’s markets is that because the food is locally grown, it is also seasonal. It’s not picked unrippened for shipment in hopes that ‘gassing’ it on arrival at its destination will have it store ready in a day or two. Those vendors at the farmer’s markets pick their produce the previous day, if not that very same morning. When everying is picked, that crop is done for the season. But you can be sure that most of those vendors have something else they’ll be selling in its place the following week. Again, talk to the vendors and find out what they’ll be having on the truck in the next week or two; then plan your family menus accordingly. If you do your own canning, talk to the vendors and make a deal for a bushel or two for the coming week. You’ll be able to match grocery store prices and get better quality nutrition at the same time.

Consumers also need to educate themselves as to what naturally ripened fruits and vegetables look like. Grocery stores, particularly the large chains, are masters when it come to marketing.  Everything is washed and presented, often under misters and ultra-violet light, to make it look better. The consumer needs to be aware that ‘pretty’ had no inherant nutrional value. And I’d much rather wash my produce myself, using something like “Shaklee Basic H” that I know is safe, than to have someone up the food supply chain use whatever soaps or chemicals are the most cost effective.

So if finding the best source of good nutrition is important to you (and why else would you be reading this?), then Google up you location and “Farmer’s Markets” and see where the closest ones are.  Here in Texas, the Texas Department of Agriculture has a web site dedicated to promoting Texas Farmer’s Markets and vendors. I’d be very surprised if your state doesn’t do that too.

There’s one more big bonus for getting to know some of these farmer’s market vendors – an invitation to visit their farm. You may very well have grand-kids that have never been to a working farm and I can’t think of a better way to spend the day with them.